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Arguments about Aborigines : Australia and the evolution of social anthropology / L.R. Hiatt
Bib ID 1110570
Format BookBook
Author
Hiatt, L. R. (Lester Richard), 1931-2008
 
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Description Cambridge, Eng. : Cambridge University Press, 1996 
xiv, 225 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm. 
ISBN 0521460085
0521566193
Summary

Arguments about Aborigines reviews a range of controversies (some still alive) that played an important role in the formative period of British social anthropology. The chapters cover family life, male/female relationships, conception beliefs, the mother-in-law taboo, various aspects of religion and ritual, political organization, and land rights: all subjects that have been matters of lively interest and long-running research. Along the way, the study traces changes in Aboriginal circumstances and practices and notes the ways in which these changes affected the scholarly debate.

The emergence of anthropology in Britain coincided with the publication of Darwin's book on the origin of species. In the context of inescapable questions about the natural history of our own species, Australian Aborigines were assigned the role of exemplars par excellence of beginnings and early human forms. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, European scholars bent on discovering the origins of social institutions began a rush on the Australian material that lasted well into the present century. The Aborigines have consequently featured as a crucial case-study for generations of social theorists, including Tylor, Frazer, Durkheim and Freud.

Full contents
  • Machine derived contents note: 1. Prologue
  • 2. Real estates and phantom hordes
  • 3. Group marriage
  • 4. The woman question
  • 5. People without politics
  • 6. High Gods
  • 7. Conception and misconception
  • 8. Dangerous mothers-in-law and disfigured sisters
  • 9. Initiation: the case of the cheeky yam
  • 10. Epilogue.
 
Notes

Includes bibliographical references.

Subjects Aboriginal Australians -- History.  |  Aboriginal Australians -- Antiquities.  |  Aboriginal Australians -- Public opinion.  |  Public opinion -- Great Britain.  |  Anthropology -- Great Britain -- History.  |  Anthropology -- Great Britain -- Philosophy.  |  Native title.  |  Social organisation - Kinship - Marriage.  |  Religion - Rites - Kulama yam.  |  Reproduction - Conception.  |  Land rights - Claims, disputes, hearings.  |  Stories and motifs - Rainbow serpent.  |  Land rights - Ownership.  |  Social organisation - Avoidance rules - Avoidance relationships.  |  Family - Mothers in law.  |  Tiwi people (N20) (NT SC52-16)  |  Ceremonies - Initiation.  |  Gender relations - Polygamy.  |  Religion - Totemism.  |  Magic and sorcery - Love magic.  |  Stories and motifs - Cultural heroes.  |  Sex relations - Child sexual abuse - Incest.  |  Art - Subjects - Wandjina.  |  Stories and motifs - Baiame.  |  Stories and motifs - Creation / Cosmology.  |  Tiwi Islands (NT SC52-15, SC52-16)

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N 306.0899915 H623
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N 306.0899915 H623
Copy: N copy (hbk)
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Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and other First Nations people are advised that this catalogue contains names, recordings and images of deceased people and other content that may be culturally sensitive. Please also be aware that you may see certain words or descriptions in this catalogue which reflect the author’s attitude or that of the period in which the item was created and may now be considered offensive.